Chapter 23 #2
“Acid,” Gray whispered, voice barely audible and filled with fearful awe. “She’s an acid wyvern.”
I cringed. Lazarus’s internal fire was bad enough. Acid seemed worse. Both were probably equally deadly.
Both wyvern were partially shifted, horns on full display, serrated teeth bared and taloned fingers spread and at the ready. Most likely the room’s size wouldn’t accommodate their wings, let alone a full transformation.
“You would keep them from me?” The female spat, more acid falling to the ground, the tiles sizzling.
She was beautiful in a horrifyingly deadly way.
With hair so dark green it almost appeared black and eyes equally dark and menacing, deep green scales shimmered along her exposed flesh.
Had we been in the sun, their gleam would have been blinding.
Staring at the enraged wyvern female, my gut sank. Were the eggs hers? I thought their mother was dead. If not, and they belonged to this wyvern, then why was Lazarus standing in her way. If this was their mother, then—
“They have never been yours,” Lazarus seethed, clouds of smoke billowing from his mouth and nose. “You murdered their mother, Verona, and now claim the eggs as your own.”
Oh. Yeah, not hers at all. Wait. “Verona?” I knew that name. She was the wyvern from South America. Verona Perez. The only reason Keir had contacted Lazarus instead of Verona was because he was geographically closer.
Verona roared. “I would be a good mother. Much better than that fool who birthed them.”
“How dare you! Vidia was no fool. She might have been young, but she was very capable. You had no right to end her life and even less right to her offspring. The eggs are not yours. You were exiled for a reason, Verona. If you pursue this path, death is all you will find at the end of the journey. The elders were lenient with you. You try their patience and mine.”
Verona’s lips pulled back, revealing even more wicked-looking teeth. “I care nothing for what the elders think.”
Lazarus scoffed. “That has been made perfectly clear. I will inform Thalia of your opinion when she arrives.”
Verona stiffened at the mention of Thalia’s name. “She would never leave her nest.”
“She would and has. Thalia is on her way here as we speak.” Lazarus sounded smug.
Verona backed down, retreating a step. “This is not over, Lazarus. I will not be denied a second time.” Without a backward glance, Verona stomped away. I heard her take flight the moment she was outside the door and far enough away to transform.
Gray coughed, waving a hand in front of his face and finally pulling Lazarus’s attention to us. Before that moment, I doubt he even knew we were in the room.
“Little hazy in here,” Gray said. “Good thing Verona busted through the door. The place could use a bit of airing out.”
Gray was right. The door was broken off its hinges. This area, this room in particular, was the only part of the compound that was above ground. It was the greeting room. Security grew tighter the further into the compound one went.
Gray shrugged. “Of course, it might not matter if Thalia gets here and the eggs tell her the whole place needs to be razed. Could be Verona was just getting a head start on the expected proceedings.”
I hung my head, tossing it back and forth.
“What?” Gray asked. “I’m just saying that it might not be such a bad thing, or maybe not the worst thing, considering what might come later. Nothing to get too upset about yet. We—”
“I get it,” I said, waving Gray’s chatter off. Walking to the broken door, I went about setting into place as best I could. That done, I turned to Lazarus and said, “Let’s go see Keir. You’ve got some explaining to do, Lazarus Azure.”
“Lots of explaining,” Gray helpfully supplied.
Lazarus didn’t say a word. He puffed out another stream of smoke and by the time he walked across the room, his horns were gone and his talons had receded. Gray and I followed at a sedate pace. I don’t think any of us were eager to find out what the hell that was all about.
We traveled deeper into the compound until we reached Keir’s quarters. Lazarus didn’t bother knocking, he simply opened the door and walked in. Keir stood from his seated position in front of the eggs. One look at all our faces and Keir said, “I’ll get the tea.”
“Thank you,” Lazarus politely answered, not a hint of his earlier posturing. “And thank you for staying with the eggs.”
Keir waved him off as he walked to his kitchen, coming back out with a pot of tea and several cups. “It’s fine.” Pouring the tea, Keir looked to me and said, “Thank you for attending when I could not, Martin. Elvira mentioned it was a bit of an…inconvenience.” Keir sent a wink my direction.
Gray and I sat on a loveseat across from Keir and Lazarus. Cheeks heating, I answered with a brief “it was no problem.” Not that I thought I’d really done much. At most I’d stood there and been witness to two posturing wyvern.
“She’s got acid,” Gray commented, seemingly out of the blue. “Acid,” he said again with a lot of trepidation and a full-body shiver.
Keir inhaled deeply before sitting down with his own cup of tea. “I was not aware Verona had that particular ability,” Keir said before taking a sip of tea. “Considering Gray is aware of Verona’s particular affinity, I’m assuming the conversation did not go well.”
“You could say that,” Gray huffed, arms crossed and leaning back into the couch, his tea untouched.
Setting down my own cup, I looked to Lazarus and said, “Gray’s not wrong. Want to tell us why Verona seems to think she has a right to the eggs and while you’re at it, how she found out about them? You said she’d been exiled. I believe there was also mention of murder.”
“Murder?” Keir sat up straighter.
A rumbling growl filled the room, low and sonorous.
“First, make no mistake, Verona Perez has no legal rights to the eggs. Even less of a moral right. The eggs are not hers. They never have been.” Inhaling deeply, some of the vitriol left Lazarus’s continence and cadence.
“I would never have called Verona mentally sound, even when she was younger and before her condition became known.”
“What condition?” I asked.
Lazarus’s lips twisted into a frown. “Although uncommon, there are some wyvern females that cannot bear eggs.”
“She’s infertile?” Gray asked.
“No. Verona can conceive, but the egg’s shells are too thin and the offspring unviable.
Verona is incapable of having offspring of her own.
” The empathy fled Lazarus’s voice. “The elders believed grief drove Verona’s actions.
While that might be true, I believe exile was too lenient.
Verona murdered a young mother with the intent of taking her eggs to hatch and raise as her own. ”
Keir sucked in a harsh breath, his gaze quickly tracking to the wyvern eggs nesting on his coffee table. “You mean, she thinks these eggs are—”
“That is exactly what Verona believes,” Lazarus answered. “And she is not wrong.”
Gray scooted forward, eyes wide and alert.
“But how? If Verona killed the eggs’ mother to get to the eggs, I can’t imagine she’d give them up easily to Huxley.
How did he get them away from her, and why…
I mean…” Gray’s suppositions dwindled, a confused look filling his face.
“That’s all I’ve got.” He shrugged. “My brain’s kinda turned to mush. ”
Lazarus’s stoic expression cracked ever so slightly before he cocked his head to the side, his gaze focused on the eggs.
“I believe Huxley was most likely an opportunist of sorts. Immediately after Vidia’s death, the eggs were searched for but never found.
The elders assumed that, in her grief-stricken state, Verona did something to the eggs, that she destroyed them along with their mother.
Verona denied this, but as the eggs were gone, no one believed her. ”
“Gaia.” I placed my head in my hands and felt Gray’s hand rub along my back.
Clearing his throat, Keir asked, “And how did Verona find out about the eggs’ existence and location? I did not contact her.”
Another growl left Lazarus’s throat. “Her brother, Axios.” When we all just stared, Lazarus got the hint.
“Axios was not banished as she was, although I believe that would have been justifiable as well.” Lazarus grumbled the last part.
“I can see how some might believe him privy to the information.”
“And he shared it with his sister,” Gray said. “That’s great. Isn’t that great, Martin?” Gray groaned and flopped back into the couch cushions.
Keir stiffened. “I do not believe this is Lazarus’s fault.”
“Didn’t say it was,” Gray mumbled, a pillow now pulled over his face. His antics made me smile despite the less-than-ideal circumstances.
As I stared at Gray, something tumbled through my head.
“Keir, you said there were only two wyvern in the Western Hemisphere. Most of the others are in Europe. If Verona was exiled to South America, then…” I let the rest hang in the air, my gaze fixed on Lazarus.
Beside me, Gray’s groan was muffled by this pillow.
Lazarus’s smile was less than pleasant. “I was sent here to keep an eye on Verona. North America was as near as I could stand being to her.”
“Oh” was all I could manage.
Doing little better, Gray groaned again, a barely audible “fuck, we’re fucked,” managing to make its way to my ears.